Night Shift Nursing

[mooremds]

Hey everyone,

I've been working the night shift (obviously since I'm online this late) steadily since last February, and I was just wondering what everyone's schedule is like. I usually try to stick to nights on my days off and will go to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning and sleep in until the afternoon. I seem to need a lot more sleep when I work the night shift and cannot make myself get up before noon on my days off. My eating schedule gets all messed up as well on my days off. Sometimes I'll only eat 1 or 2 meals a day, definitely not healthy, if it's my first night off I'll sleep until 5 or 6 PM, especially if I worked a lot of days in a row, and then I'll eat around 9 or 10, and go back to sleep around midnight or 1 AM to try and be awake a little during the day the next day. How do you spend your days off? Does anyone else have as many problems as I do with the night shift?

[AnRNsLife]

I worked nights when I was a new nurse. I lasted about two months. Now I decided to go back and it's week three. I feel miserable. I'm a single mom and a full time student in an online MSN program. I have headaches, stomach aches, vivid dreams, depression, apathy, irritability, I wake up in a panic not knowing where I am or what day it is, you name it. The hospital is great, the staff are great, but my physical and mental state is a wreck. I told the hospital today that I can't do this anymore. It's Sunday so I'll find out the repercussions tomorrow. But I'm not just a night shift nurse. Anyone else feel this way?